War On Mumbai!

Terrorists struck the Maximum City at nine places on the 25th. They left the city scarred and angry. The anger is not limited to the people affected as it usually is in our country. There is a wide spread feeling of angst and discontent across the country. Our policemen and army personnel have laid down their lives to contain the situation and all the politicians could do was use the situation against their political rivals. That is sad and disgusting at so many levels. The people have a right to feel agitated.

There are a few things that have come out of all this which are worth noting and some of which can be implemented.

1. Do we have a central agency that specifically deals with terror threats of this sort? If not, no better time than now to create one. This force should be accountable only to the highest authority in our country, the President.

2. Why do our policemen carry World War I rifles to a fire fight? For a country this big, can't we afford to equip our officers and jawans with decent weapons? The terrorists were equipped with A.K. 47s and our men with those antique pieces that would guarantee our men a place in history themselves?

3. The security levels at these places is very lax. Why is it so? We crib about having higher levels of unemployment. I think that this could be an avenue for employment. We need to beef up the security at places like the ones that were attacked. Even if they don't end up really doing much for the security bit, they would at least end up relaying the information across town.

4. Information gathered by various agencies is not shared. I suppose this is an issue in every country. However, things in India are different enough to warrant such an access to information. I suppose this rings back to the first point about having a centralized agency to fight terror.

Like every other time, are we going to let all of this go? All the stuff I mentioned were points that came up in all the discussions that followed this sad event. Everyone heard it. Will someone do something about it?

India beat England 5-0

India won! We've now beaten England 5-0 in the seven match series. Dhoni and Raina steadied the innings towards the end after the brilliant start by Sehwag and Tendulkar. We cruised to victory easily. One would wonder if there could be anything that could mar such a happy occasion. Apparently there is something.

The match being telecast on Neo Cricket was constantly interrupted to show ads. They would not only show ads between overs but even if there was a replay or if a third umpire decision was pending. Any little free time and you'd see an ad. Most of the time, the ads would be shown till the very last moment and we'd be taken back to be shown the main shot after which another ad would be shown. This is worst example of unprofessional advertising means employed by any ad agency.

Neo Cricket is supposed to be a channel dedicated to Cricket and is supposed to be for Cricket lovers. The blatant misuse of their advertising rights shows us that money takes precedence over morals. I hope that this channel is not given anymore exclusive broadcasting rights.

P.S. I am super happy that India is rocking now!!!

Live as if...

Just something I heard in passing:

Work as if you have no need of the money.
Love as if nobody ever made you suffer.
Dance as if nobody is watching you.
Sing as if nobody is hearing you.
Live as if it were heaven on earth.

You ask me if this is really possible? Well, you'll never know till you try. :) It did occur to me that this did look a lot like those annoying email forwards we keep getting. This one in particular was interesting. Have we ever given thought to how we live our lives? Life is not about patterns but it is more about opening up and exploring new emotions.

Still Missing You!

Been six months since the big breakup -- the big kapish! All these days later, I sat down to see if this has changed me in any way. And apparently it has. It was so much easier back then. I didn't care for anyone else and I didn't care if others cared either. Its no fun to be alone so suddenly. It sucks to feel so incomplete. The world around me has changed. I know there are some people who definitely hate me for some reason. Thats the sad part - I don't even know the reason. This seems so much the like the old days at college.

Considering how vulnerable I feel, I find it even more difficult to start over with all these people behaving in such a manner. I think I should take off for some time and work on other things. Obviously, work is not as fulfilling and time-consuming as I hoped it would be. It is tough to understand what I'm going through because - as cliched as it may sound - I don't have words to describe the loneliness. I have become unusually rude to people to keep them away from me. I know of many people I could have really hurt if I let my sarcasm out. Thank god I've not fallen that far.

I am writing all this so that I know what I felt like even after I have healed. I understand that the first step in healing is to forget the past. I've done a lot of things I regret. Its time to move on. And thats what I am going to do. I have made many new friends who I like. I don't care overly much for the ones who know hate me. At the end of the day, my problems and these people are probably nothing compared to what some others are going through. I call a time-out.

Love & Peace

- Aj

What I'm listening to on November 18, 2008

Discover !

Laura Pausini - Inveche No

This song is in a language I don't understand. Yet I find this song captivating and I can't stop listening to it. I've got the lyrics. Hope everyone listening to this song enjoys the music.

Forse bastava respirare, solo respirare un pò
fino a riprendersi ogni battito
e non cercare lattimo, per andar via (non andare via)
perchè non può essere abitudine
dicembre senza te, chi resta qui spera limpossibile

Invece no, non cè più tempo per spiegare
per chiedere se ti avevo dato amore
io sono qui e avrei da dire ancora, ancora

Perche si spezzano tra i denti
le cose più importanti
quelle parole che non osiamo mai
e faccio un tuffo nel dolore, per farle risalire
riportarle qui, una per una qui
le senti tu pesano e si posano per sempre su di noi
e se manchi tu, io non so riperterle io non riesco a dirle più

Invece no, qui piovono i ricordi
ed io farei di più, di ammettere che è tardi
come vorrei, poter parlare ancora ancora

E Invece no, non ho più tempo per spiegare
avevo anchio ( io) qualcosa da sperare davanti a me
qualcosa da finire insieme a te.

Forse mi basta respirare
solo respirare un pò
Forse è Tardi, forse invece no.

Proud To Be An Indian!

I am not proud to be an Indian! The lady on the news channel kept repeating this throughout the debate. This lady was the distressed wife of a sailor whose ship has been hijacked by Somalian pirates and she was irate and blamed the government for not doing anything to save her husband.

Another girl recounted her sad story of the search for her father who was kidnapped by the Naxals. She mentioned that the government had given up on her father and that she was in the process of collecting one crore rupees to fund a private search for her father. She said that at that point in time, she was ashamed to call herself an Indian and sung praises of how the governments of other nations look after its' citizens.

While these were just two isolated cases, there were the usual killings, bomb blasts and political allegations. The news broadcast was done; I shrugged and then changed the channel. I'm sure most of us would have done that. How is it that people like us get the right to go on national television and proclaim that you are not proud of being an Indian? The awakening does not happen till someone close to home gets hurt. It is never our fight till it involves us.

I am proud of the resilience of our country. I am extremely proud of the zeal and the enthusiasm shown by the youngsters of our country in coming out and supporting the causes of others like it were their own. I am proud of those few policies our political parties pursue which are actually of use to us. I am proud of my local police team who worked tirelessly to locate a missing child a week ago. I am proud of those ads on the TV telling people to go and vote.

I am also proud of the spirit of our people who bounce back each time there is a bombing. People, who pick themselves up and move on with their lives like nothing happened. I'm proud of my country and my people. I am proud to be an Indian.

With so many good things on one side of the scale, how can anyone possibly find the other side weighing more?

Maula Mere

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Maula mere, maula mere maula mere, maula mere - 4
aankhein teri - 2, kitni haseen
ki inkaa aashiq, mein ban gayaa hoon
mujhako basaa le, iname tu
(ishq hai
maula mere, maula mere maula mere, maula mere - 2) - 3

ki inakaa aashiq, mein ban gayaa hoon
mujhako basaa le, iname tu

mujhase yeh har ghadi, meraa dil kahe
tum hi ho usaki aarzoo
mujhase yeh har ghadi, mere lab kahe
teri hi ho sab guftagoo
baatein teri itni haseen, main yaad inko jab kartaa hoon
phoolon si aaye, khushaboo

rakh loon chhupaa ke main kahin tujhako
saayaa bhi teraa naa main doon
rakh loon banaa ke kahin ghar, main tujhe
saath tere, main hi rahoon
julfen teri, itni ghani
dekh ke inako, yeh sochataa hoon
saaye me, inake main jiyoon
(ishq hai
maula mere, maula mere maula mere, maula mere - 2) - 3

(meraa dil yahi bolaa, meraa dil yahi bolaa,
yaara raaj yeh usane hai mujh par kholaa
ki hai ishq mohabbat, jiske dil mein
usko pasand karta hai maulaa) - 3

Turning Good?

Theres this little widget to the side on my blog that tells me how good or evil my blog is. Turns out, I've fallen from being 47% evil to just 29% evil! I knew it. I'm losing my touch. Must be all my posts that are sappy and/or nice.

Instant Karma!!!

So, we Hindus have this whole belief that a puja (ritual) can cleanse us and wipe our sins away. Yep… even better than Harpic. So, dad had this big puja a few days back. It was interesting to see how it all turned out. This puja was done in a small town called Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh. Here it goes (in no particular order):

1. All the muslim guests stayed away.

2. I don’t think any guests of any other religion were invited (!).

3. All the old ladies spent their time gossiping about last night’s soap/kitchen politics.

4. The men discussed politics (the regular ones) and business (recession na… hot topic now)…. and of course, sports.

5. The pujari (priest/facilitator/middle man/soporific) was in his own world… chanting some mumbo-jumbo. God only knows if the stuff he was muttering even made any sense.

6. I was hardly around… the bloody pujari kept asking for things that he thought ought to be there. I was the ferryman extraordinaire (and an unwitting moron too)!

7. My sis, who actually bought the house, was sitting pretty in the US while I did the slogging. Yeah… shes' smart, I‘m not. Big deal… old story… move on!

8. The R.O.M. (rest of the mohalla)… turned up for the free (and tasteless) sit-down lunch. They didn’t care if they knew us… they wanted food. It was like Somalia. It was embarassing for me to ask who they were (Hey! I'm not from there). Shouldn’t they introduce themselves?

I said it was interesting to see how people reacted. It was more like I had no other choice. Bleh… gotta love these rituals right?